Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-05-30

His family, urhappily, didn't sympathize
with his military tastes They had strong
ambitions in a different direction They he
.onged to and fraterIzed with the present
and its material interests His wife had been
obliged to he both financial and domestic
manager, and her husbands improvidence
often placed her in very awkward predira
ments. Their son turned hi, attention to law
and looked forward hopefully to future dis
.inction He had worked hard to pun him
self up to the starting place, too; and the
leighbors said he deserved credit The
daughters leaned to music and painting, and
dreamed of careers, and vainly wished It
were possible to convince their over patriotic
father that the war bad long since ended.
The captain, though bodily figure in his
household, III spirit dwelt in the past, amid
the roar Of battle Or in the idle days of wait
ing i'll camp, and was happy as only one who
INDUCES his pet dreams can be. As his hair
whitened and Old age began to face him
squarciy, his war stories were often finished
with sigh, and he spoke more frequently of
reunions III that unknown country INTO which
flesh and blood can never enter, aud where
war and the engines of war are neither
known nor needed And when there were
reunions here-when the Old veterans met and
marched on fielas of peace under flags that
had iecn lriumphantly borne in war-Capt.
Hattans eyes were always dim with tears.
Once he looked at the shruuken column of
veterans AMI Gcclingiy repeated these lines:
Another mighty host comes marching slow
From t!srir ltHg bivnuacs in the grass and
SNOW
By these they fought and suffered long ago.
THROUGH every street they march with silent
tread
Quicken tine living We the living deadD;
Look the sau,- tattered flag is overhead.
His materiaistic and unpcetical friends said
that lie Was getting Old and possibly lit lt
feeble minced; but those who are much inter
ested in life never understand the feeling Of
| those who are slipping out of it.
Last year, as Decoration day approached,
| Capt. Hatton7s eyes burned With more patri-
otic fervor than ever. Honors to the dead
| heroes of the war gave him great joy. His
| fellow townslncr, knowing the depth and
strength of his patriotism, requested him tc
| give Il talk on Decoration day, III the GENE
| terry, on the war and its heroic dead.
The day came The few soldiers graves
| in the Braceviie cemetery were most pro
| digally covered with flowers. Prayers were
offered, poems read and eulosies pronounced
| over the brave men who died i'll their coun
try's service. Eut fher6 weresfew TO weeI
| over them Their companions aud friends
had nearly all vanished from under the sun
Capt. Iiattons address astonisbed every
body 1t was the outpouring of his heart OF
| a theme dearer to him than all else, and the
force and feeling with which he spoke set the
/ hearts of his hearers on fire, and they wept
He painted the spirit of the war as it came tt
and overshadowed the peaceful land; he de
scribed the fiction of battle, the courage Of
the soldiers, their endurance and patience II
the long marches and the tedious camp lie
He painted, too, the Battle of Shiloh, wher'
ba had given the best of bis eorporeJ frame